By Stephen D. Bowling

For seventeen years, she lived in their home on Main Street after he died.

Well-loved and widely respected, Maude Ella (Arnett) Bach was a popular, though reclusive, Jackson resident and was listed among its noble citizens.

Exactly what happened in her living room on the morning of March 13, 1968, is not known, but by the time the smoke was noticed and the fire department arrived, it was too late.

Firefighters rushed to the scene about 10:30 a.m. and found Clarence Arnett, her brother, standing on the sidewalk. 

He told the crews that his sister was in the home, but in his panic, he was very hard to understand.  Neighbors told the Fire Chief Irdell Hundley that there were still two people in the home, unaware that Clarence had escaped the blaze.

Crews, using ladders, knocked out several windows and poured water onto the fire on the ground floor.  Within minutes, the blaze was under control.  Through the window, firefighter Abb Russell could see her body lying on the floor.

Firefighters braved the smoke and entered the home.  They found her blackened, crumpled body lying on the floor about three feet from a gas heater.  She was dead.   

Breathitt County Coroner Ed Hollon arrived as small puffs of smoke still swirled from the corners of the windows.

They carried her body onto the front porch as most of the spectators lining the street turned away.

Coroner Hollon examined the charred remains and determined that her nightgown most likely came into contact with the open gas heater in the living room and caught fire.  He believed that she may have been asleep or unable to escape the flames.

No inquest was held, and her body was transported by ambulance/hearse to the Breathitt County Funeral Home.

He ruled her cause of death as “accidental burns.”

The daughter of Augustus A. and Mattie (Patrick) Arnett, Maude Arnett married Chester Arthur Bach on December 24, 1914.  She was born and raised in Magoffin County, Kentucky.

The family settled into domestic life in Jackson.  He was admitted to the bar in 1908 and practiced law in Jackson.  He served several terms as the City Attorney for Jackson. 

In 1925, he was appointed and later elected to serve as the Circuit Judge of the 36th Circuit.  He was elected to the position in 1927 and served for two additional terms until 1945. 

A former United States Army soldier, Judge Bach died of a heart attack at Campton while en route from Lexington to his home on a bus.  

His widow continued to live in the home on Main Street until the fire that took her life.

The flames caused “extensive damage to the first floor of the two-story dwelling,” The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the next day.  The home’s upper floor sustained only smoke damage.

Mrs. Bach was a member of First United Methodist Church of Jackson and active in the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Funeral services for Maude Ella (Arnett) Bach were conducted on Friday, March 15, 1968, at the Breathitt Funeral Home.  She was taken to the Bluegrass Cemetery in Salyersville, where they buried beside her husband.

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© 2026 Stephen D. Bowling

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